Welcome to Hickstead, home to both Seven Oak Stables, and Blue Acre - two rival stables. Both offer opportunities for their clients to reach the highest level of excellence. Each stable differs from the other, so choose wisely and never forget, loyalty is everything... Meanwhile as the stables battle it out, there's trouble brewing at the university. Be careful, if you don't pick a side you may get caught in the cross-fire...
This is an chilled out rpg with a super friendly and relaxed atmosphere! Remember to sign up with your characters full name in all caps and don't forget to do your claims! Thank you and Welcome, we've been established since 10th March 2009 but unfortunately have had to close guest view of our boards due to multiple sites ripping off our hard work, such a shame! Come chat to us in Discord before joining if you like!.
Mik gave a boyish grin as he swept a bow. "We humble stable hands are here to serve you, milady." He teased. "If you're short on time, you just have to call the office and one of us can have the horse you want ready to go as soon as you walk in the door." They were lucky that most people were hands-on here, but there had been the odd person who had walked in, expecting to be handed a tacked up horse, who they could then ride and hand back off as soon as they dismounted, forming no real bond with the poor horse.
He laughed. "It's only cheating if you're copying other people's work. Paying someone else to do the homework is on a whole different level of what you shouldn't do!" Until he'd convinced his parents to let him go to an actual school, he'd done all his own work, so when he was at school that never changed. "There are days that I miss the people I knew at school, more-so uni, because I went to an all-boy's boarding school." And when you lived with someone day in and day out, you didn't miss them that much when you got away from them, and he still emailed a few of his old friends.
"She'd probably spend those hours working with her ponies." He said with a shrug. "Being outside without an actual gameplan can often be relaxing enough." He had the feeling that Cara was a bit like himself, and when he wasn't busy, it gave the mind too much time with the what if questions. "Yes, you." He confirmed with a smile. "Maybe you could do with a trail ride."
He grinned, it was wonderful to be back at work. However, he would normally be taking out more than two horses at a time, sometimes even riding one and ponying the others. "My medication comes in pills, so no taste other than what ever I'm drinking to down them. One of the downsides of growing up, no more bubble-gum tasting medicine in a bottle." He released the mares he was holding and watched as they wandered off to graze before heading back in to return the halters and collect the next lot of horses. "Well, my little Padawan, how was you first day on the job?"
Emma raised her eyebrow and laughed. 'I'm not royalty you know. Looking after my own horses is part of the experience. Though come exam season, I may have to take you up on that." She knew most people at Blue Acres looked after their horses before and after riding, though there were always going to be those entitled riders that wanted the opposite. "It's all part of being a horse owner, but you know that better than anyone. I understand having a groom at a competition but not at home." She was lucky to have the help she needed if she decided to take two horses to a competition.
"I'd call both cheating. It's not really your own work if you get someone else to do it. Have you ever been caught though?" Granted, every teacher was different. Cheating or plagiarizing was something serious or so she understood from her teachers. She often asked Cara or her fellow students for help when she needed it. "Oh so you miss the girls you went to school with? I can't imagine how smelly the all boys school was." Her classmates in physical education could be gross, though that was typical of of students in her age group.
Emma thought for a moment, hearing from other adults all they wanted to do was nothing - though she knew Cara better than that. "See most adults would consider that as work. I maybe thought sending her to a Spa would be nice, but working with the ponies sounds more like something she'd like." Working too hard was something that seemed to run in the family, even though they weren't all biologically related to each other. "Are you saying I'm too focused on my lessons and not riding for fun?" She grinned, knowing it was true.
"That sounds gross. I guess the best you can do is take it with a smoothie. It should mask the chalky taste." Her days of bubble gum and grape flavored medicine was also over, though the adult cold medicines usually had some sort of flavor to them as well. She watched as the mares playfully ran off towards the closest bale of hay. "It's actually enjoyable. I see why you like it so much. Or do you like your other job better?"
Mik gave a formal bow. "The lady doth protest too much, methinks. Naomi is the queen of the barn, which naturally makes you a princess." He gave her a warm smile. "Don't ever stop being who you are. I'd much prefer all the teenaged riders I meet to be as hands on as you are. Don't be afraid to ask for help though."
He grinned and shook his head. "Both are cheating, and I swear I never did either. Attending a prestigious boarding school of the rich and famous, it's not the easiest to get away with anything unless you ask someone outside of the school, and when all of our correspondence is monitored, there is no chance of getting someone to do your homework." Plus, the thought of what would happen if he was caught even trying to cheat, that was enough to make him walk the straight and narrow any day. "Yes, some of the girls at Cambridge were memorable. Not memorable enough to keep in touch with, but good memories."
"Have you meet Cara?" He asked as he thought about her going to a spa. "She'd be happy enough just working with her ponies, knowing that she didn't have any time restraints."
He pulled a face at the thought of taking his medication with a smoothie, he had enough trouble keeping water down first thing in the morning, he couldn't imagine anything like a smoothie. "Thanks." He said with a grin. "I'll keep that in mind for next time." He watched the mares for a moment, making sure they were all moving properly, and that none of them fell on their faces on their way to the food. "Out of my jobs, this one takes the top billing. Sure, I'm still waiting on people here, but I get to play with horses." He shrugged. "Okay, we have some more horses to bring out, before I need to start helping with the mucking out."
"Where did you find that line? It sounds like something Cara would say." She felt like the two of them spent a little too much time together as they were starting to sound alike. "Wait, do the others really not look after their horses themselves?" It was something her first foster family instilled in her. She was also still too shy to ask for help - but school always came first.
Emma shook her head. From what she had heard so far, Mik had a life she could only dream of. "I thought maybe you'd cheat on homework. Seems like a Mik thing to do." She joked, knowing how much of a hard worker he was. "All jokes aside, was it that small of a school that everyone knew each other?" Hickstead seemed to have bigger classes - though more and more people were moving there. "No cute girls though?"
She raised her eyebrow, there were so many ladies she went to school with that would kill to have a Spa day - though Cara was different. "I'll take Ky to the park then maybe so she can have an afternoon to ride." It was something she could do during her homework session too. "I mean, it makes the medicine taste better. I hear people do that with protein powder?" She turned to watch Vienna as the mare turned to run with the others.
"You like being a stable hand more than working at the bar? I thought the bar would take the cake!" As she wasn't old enough, she hadn't visited Mik at the Lounge yet, though she had heard rumors of them having an under 18 evening from time to time. "Lead the way, I'm ready for the next batch of horses." She could probably handle two of the school horses at once - if they were well behaved.
Mik laughed. "It's a line from Shakespeare's play Hamlet." He replied with a shrug. And he wasn't at all surprised that Cara would use Shakespearean quotes, as she seemed to be able to quote anything at the drop of a hat. "At this barn? Yeah, most of the clients here work with their horses as much as you do, just they aren't here as often as you are, so we have to do all that work on the day they aren't here." He shrugged, as it was part of his job, and he wouldn't want it any other way.
He pulled a face at her. "I had a nanny who drilled into me how important it was to do all my own work." He said, though the memories of that caused the face to slip a little at the memory that, as she did a little more than drilling, but he wasn't going to let that pull a dark cloud over this great day! "School wasn't that small, not huge either, like public schools, but not small enough that there were only a few of us in each class. We were all legacies... Um... our families had been in the school for years, so even before meeting us, the teachers had an idea of what we were going to be like by who had been at the school before us. For the good or the bad. And no, no cute girls." The main problem of an all-boys school, no girls.
He nodded at her suggestion. "Ky and the twins love going to the park, so that would work in your favour." He grinned. "They love spending time in the barn with their lesson ponies too, in case the weather isn't on your side." He knew that the weather gods loved doing the opposite of what you wanted them to do. If you had plans to go out, it rained.
She shrugged at the question about his jobs. "I like working with horses more than I like working with people, especially after said people have had a few drinks and think they own the world." He shrugged again. The only reason he'd taken the second job was so that he would never have any issues about paying the bills at the end of the day, horses were his world. He grinned as he slowly turned away from the pasture, as turning too quickly was still something that sent his head spinning. "Let's go get the rest of the girls. He flashed her a grin as he walked with her back into the barn, grabbed the last of the mare halters and handed one to Emma. "Yes, you could handle more than one. But Naomi would kill me if anything happened to you on my watch. And I'd never forgive myself. So humour an old fool?" He knew that she could do it, but things could go wrong so quickly when it came to horses, and he didn't want to take any chances.
Emma jokingly rolled her eyes. "Don't get me started on Shakespeare, I swear Cara has all of his works memorized." That and her English teacher was drilling them into her - it was hard enough for her to understand the current English language, let alone learning old English. "That makes sense. I have to realize that I'm still in school. Though there are people who just show up for their lessons, right?" She knew those people as some of them took lessons with her. It was something she never understood, though one day she would.
"You had a nanny? How was that?" Emma thought it would feel odd - she always had at least one parent home with her growing up. "Wow, sounds fancy. I think I'd rather have that than the Secondary school." The smaller class sizes was the thing that mostly appealed to her. "So, no distractions then right?" She tried her best not to get caught up in all the drama - though it was unavoidable. Something about girls all liking the same boy. She was sure it would soo break out into a fight. "Thank you for the suggestions, I'll talk to Cara once we are done here."
She didn't want to know how weird people got, but she also knew what alcohol could do. "I don't envy you at all working there. Horses are much better to work with, I agree with you there. Though there must be some funny stories working with drunk people?" It was something she kept away from - there were students that were already into partying. Emma nodded and turned around, following Mik back into the barn. "You really aren't that old. When I was younger I believed you. But alright, I'll take Toroto then." She took the halter from Mik and headed over to the paint mare's stall.
Mik laughed and nodded. He'd spent enough years around Cara to know the young woman had a lot of things stored up in her head, and he often wondered if she was able to forget as well as she could remember. He nodded. "Yes, there are the handful of people who turn up to ride and then leave as soon as their feet his the ground again, without so much as a thank you for their horse, but you have people like that everywhere."
He pulled a face at the question. "I'd rather have had parents that cared more about what I was doing, than how focused mother was with her parties." His father just followed whatever his wife said, even if he was the head of the household. "No, no distractions." He pulled a face and shuddered. "Even our female teachers weren't a distraction. Did make for fun dances though with our sister school a few times a year." Sure, they were in single sex schools, but they weren't monks.
He laughed and nodded about horses being easier to work with. At least if one annoyed you, you could turn them out in the pasture to burn off some energy, intoxicated people, not so much. He shook his head, as most of the stories weren't very appropriate to share with a teenager. "People tend to get loud and annoying when they've had too much to drink. I have had a few ladies offer to buy me drinks though." Thankfully, he could use the excuse about not being able to drink on the job. He laughed at stuck his tongue out at her. "I do note that you didn't disagree to me being a fool, though." He laughed again as he went to get the horses he was going to lead out. "Thanks for all your help this morning, kiddo."
Emma shook her head. Doing that to her horses was something the teen would consider being close to torture. "And you wonder why people like that complain about not having a bond with their horse." Her first foster family taught her that when she first started riding. Being able to take care of her horses herself was something she took pride in.
She felt a frown form on her face, only starting to realize now what Mik's family was like when he was younger. "Yuck, I feel bad. I didn't realize what your family was like. Is that why you left home early? Or did they make you go to boarding school?" It made her wonder why her first foster family left her.
After clipping the next halter on to Indi's head, knowing that the older grey mare would behave herself on the way out. She led the mare down the barn aisle and towards the mare's field. "Wait, what kind of dances did you have to do? Sometimes I wish our school had one." They really only had dance during gym class - and that meant the male gym class had to join them.
Emma's mouth formed an O shape, slightly shocked. "And what would Miss Amber say about that? I do hope you said no." Emma laughed as she continued walking down the path. "Well, fool wouldn't be the word I'd use to describe you. Though you are the jester around here." Helping at the barn usually meant working with Mik - and he often had some goofy story to tell, always making her smile or laugh at least once.
"No problem, not sure where else I would be during my time off."
Mik shrugged. "A number of the big name riders, both competitive showing and polo, will leave the arena, and swap from one horse to another with barely giving their ride a pat for a good job. Too many people, with money, look at a horse the same way they would their Ferrari, though sometimes the car gets a little more attention." When people tried to say that horses were nothing more than a machine, Mik would always tell them to picture themselves riding a motorbike at top speed that could think for itself, and often didn't want to go in the same direction as you. That's the kind of machine a horse was.
He shrugged. "Family life wasn't too bad. Sure, I may make it seem bad, but I never had to worry about having clothes on my back, food in my stomach or a roof over my head, so I can't complain. Mother wanted me to remain at home, with tutors, and when I said I wanted to go to an actual school, like my riding buddies, it was boarding school or nothing." He shrugged again as he collected the horses he was going to take out.
He grinned as he thought about the dances he'd done at school, dancing a quick waltz. "Waltz, foxtrot, some ballroom. Everything went, as long as the boys didn't get handsie." He winced as he could remember the teachers walking around with a cane that was used to get hands to move back to where they were supposed to be. "We even did a bit of two-step." Much to the chagrin of their gym teacher.
He laughed at Emma's reaction. "Well, I'm not allowed to drink while I'm working, so declining is easy, and since Amber's at the bar, her shooting daggers at them helps too." And, a bit of flirting kept the girls coming back to the club, so it worked out well. Plus all the locals knew that he wasn't single. His mouth dropped open, hand going to his heart as though her words had cause him a physical injury. "Hey!" He protested with a wicked grin. "I resemble that comment!" Much to the disgust of his mother.
He released the mare's into the pasture, leaving their halters on the grass by the fence. "You could always be sleeping in?" He suggested. "Though we'll never turn away free help."
Emma shook her head. She knew better than to treat her horses like that. “Huh, that baffles me. They aren’t machines and I know it sounds cheesy but, they have thoughts and feelings too.” The teen did as much as she could at competitions, sometimes leaning on her family or other Blue Acres riders to help. She also offered her help to those competitors at Blue Acres who needed it.
“I’m glad you got your way in the end though. I’d have to agree with you, I enjoy going to school. Having a tutor sounds boring. What made her change her mind?” There seemed to be a method for convincing adults to agree with children, but now that she was in her later teens it almost felt like she was an adult. “Wait, you had to dance with boys? How gross was that?” Emma laughed, she really enjoyed Gym class - except when it came to dancing. She wasn’t quite coordinated enough to dance and it was awkward dancing with the boys in her class.
Emma nodded, she knew Mik would be smart about being sober on the job. “How is Miss Amber anyway? I haven’t seen her around here in awhile.” She had only come across the older blonde woman a few times, but she was always there visiting with Mik or his horses. “That was supposed to be a compliment. Someone needs to be funny around here. Especially with all the stuffy people that ride here.” She loved Blue Acres, but like any situation there were always people who tended to be grumpy. Emma threw Indi’s halter in the pile and began the walk back to the barn.
“Do you really think anyone who lives in the Clarke-Thorne household sleeps in? I find sleep hard to come by sometimes.” It all depended on how much thinking she had done - it took her a long time to wind down enough to fall asleep.
Mik shrugged, he often wondered the same thing. He'd spent more nights than he could count in the stall with his horse if they weren't well, or if the horse had had a bout colic and he still wanted to keep an eye on them. He would never see his horses as anything other than a creature with feelings and emotions like his own.
He shrugged again, not wanting to get into the fact that it was a visit too many to the emergency room that alerted his parents to how his tutor was keeping their son in line. "I planned out what I was going to say to them first. We had a good debate on the pros and cons, turned out that there were more pros, so I got to go." There you go, the sugar-coated version. He laughed and nodded. "Yes, I learned to dance by dancing with another guy. As the only females on site, were old enough to be our grandmothers, it wasn't as gross as the thought dancing with one of the teachers. And some of the guys would have been paired off anyway, as we didn't have that many female faculty members."
He smiled at the thought of his girlfriend. "She's good. Busy with life stuff, and she's not horsey." And he really didn't care, even though he was going to get her up on one of his horses at some point...he just had to work out the how. He laughed and bowed. "I took it as a compliment, love." He assured her with a grin. "I'm here to brighten anyone's day."
He laughed and shrugged, he was up before dawn and then often didn't get to bed till the wee hours of the morning, so when he went to bed, he often crashed. "In my defense, I wish to plead the fifth." Thought he didn't know many equestrians who slept-in. There was always so much to do when it came to horses.
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